Video conference systems are typically used to enhance a conference call experience for participants at two or more locations that are remote with respect to each other. An advantage in conducting a video conference call is that participants at a local, or near-end location, are able to see and more easily interact with participants at another, remote or far-end location. In this regard, participants are able to view each other and to interactively discuss visual aids, such as a white board, used during the course of the call. The ability for participants at both ends of a call to view and more effectively interact with visual aids and remote participants during the course of the call greatly enhances the effectiveness of the conference call.
Video conference systems typically include some number of microphones, at least one loudspeaker, a camera and functionality that operates to automatically control the camera pan, tilt and zoom, a display and signal processing functionality that operates to filter or in other ways modify multi-media signals received by the system from the local environment prior to sending the signals to a remote communication device. More specifically with respect to the automatic camera control functionality, participant location, active speaker detection and speaker movement methodologies are commonly used to control a conference camera to focus on an active speaker or speakers and to track their movement in a conference room.
For some computer applications, the orientation (gaze/pose) of an individual can be useful for the purpose of controlling the operation of the application. For example, gaze or pose information can be used to control the operation of a browser running on a computer or control the operation of a virtual reality application or a self-driving car application. In this regard, the gaze direction or pose of an individual operating the computer (i.e., sitting in front of a computer or wearing a computer device running a virtual reality application) can be detected and used in the same manner that a computer mouse is used to control the operation of the application.